Editorial | End yard waste plastic bags

Yard waste contaminated by plastic bags at the Outer Loop Landfill.

People in Louisville are doing what they've long done, raking them into piles, or using annoying and often polluting leaf blowers. Then they put their leaves into containers or bags along the curb. There, they await pickup and transport to composting operations.

Since 1984, a local ordinance essentially has banned yard waste from going into the Outer Loop Landfill, owned by Waste Management, Inc.

Outer Loop is probably the last municipal landfill to be located in Louisville. Why fill it up with a something that could easily be turned into a valuable product used to improve soil and beautify the city?

But last year, after prodding from environmental engineer Sarah Lynn Cunningham, Metro Solid Waste officials acknowledged that a substantial amount of yard waste, including grass clippings, was going into the landfill anyway. A loophole in the regulations allows the practice, which threatens to undermine public confidence by fueling a long-standing myth that recycling programs are bogus.

The problem: Plastic bags. They have so contaminated yard waste at the Outer Loop composting facility, that it cannot be sold as compost, Pete Flood, a supervisor in the Solid Waste Management Division, told The Courier-Journal in August 2012.

So the yard waste gets dumped atop all the garbage. It's used as required cover material, to control rats, odors and blowing litter, even though people at home continue to dutifully keep their garbage and yard waste separate.

Officials have said the same problem may occur at landfills outside Jefferson County where some of our yard waste also ends up.

As a solution, officials with Metro government and the Louisville and Jefferson County waste management district board, which regulates solid waste locally, correctly decided to try for a second time in four years to adopt a ban on plastic bags used for yard waste.

The board could go it alone, but instead drafted an ordinance and sent it to Metro Council in August, where it has unfortunately stalled.

Metro Council President Jim King "believes an education period is needed before any such law is imposed," said Tony Hyatt, a spokesman for council Democrats. "That thought has been relayed to the Fischer administration."

A spokesman for Mayor Greg Fischer said "his team will be discussing this further with council members and the solid waste board to determine next steps."

We can't understand why officials have fallen for such nonsense. Metro government is spending a lot of tax dollars for trucks and crews to collect leaves and grass clippings within the Urban Services District, and also for "composting" surcharges, but without getting composting.

And get this: Louisville Metro actually pays more to dump yard waste at Outer Loop Landfill than it does to dump garbage.

It's not like Louisville would be breaking new ground with a ban. A city report found that Cincinnati and Columbus in Ohio, Nashville, Tenn., St. Louis, Mo., and Lexington all prohibit plastic bags for yard waste.

By adopting new practices, people can save money. For example, leaves and grass can be mulched into yards with lawnmowers. Yard waste can be composted at home. Reusable 32-gallon plastic containers can be bought for $10 to $20 and used for many years. For people tight on space, collapsible, reusable containers can be bought for a little more.

Single-use, compostable paper yard waste bags are not much more expensive than plastic bags.

It's too late to fix this for the current leaf season. But we hope the mayor, the solid waste board or Metro Council will do something before mowing starts next spring.

Just get it done.

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Editorial | End yard waste plastic bags

Leaves are now blanketing yards, in all their colorful glory. People in Louisville are doing what they?ve long done, raking them into piles, or using annoying and often polluting leaf blowers. Then